Zimbabwe election battle turns to partial recount

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean election officials are expected on Saturday to begin a partial recount of votes from the March 29 elections despite opposition protests and widespread fears political stalemate could erupt in violence.

The recount in 23 of 210 constituencies could overturn the results of the parliamentary election, which showed President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF losing its majority to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change for the first time.

Results of the presidential election have not been released.

Zimbabwe's electoral commission has said some foreign observers will be allowed to monitor the recount, which has aroused widespread concerns in the West that Mugabe's government is planning to rig the outcome.

A delegation from the 14-nation Southern African Development Community will be present, with South Africa's foreign affairs deputy director-general for Africa, Kingsley Mamabolo, leading the mission.

"It is part of the SADC observer mission to count and verify the votes in the election," Ronnie Mamoepa, spokesman for South Africa's Department of Foreign Affairs, said.

It is unclear when the recount, which includes votes cast in the presidential election, will be completed or when results will be issued.

The ruling ZANU-PF triggered the procedure after it formally accused election officials of taking bribes to undercount votes for Mugabe and his ruling party and committing other electoral fraud. A number of election officials have been arrested since.

The MDC, which has declared victory in both the parliamentary and presidential races, unsuccessfully tried to stop the recount. The Harare High Court on Friday rejected its bid to do so.

The court had previously rejected an MDC effort to force authorities to release the result of the presidential vote.

MUGABE ATTACKS

The delay in announcing results has given rise to opposition fears the recount could be a ploy by Mugabe's government to steal the election. The security of the ballot boxes is a concern that could cloud or even tarnish the recount.

The MDC and some international observers accused Mugabe of rigging the last presidential election in 2002, and there are growing calls on the 84-year-old veteran to guarantee a clean result in this poll.

Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, has brushed aside the pressure from London, Washington and elsewhere and is preparing for an expected second ballot run-off against Tsvangirai.

The veteran ruler went on the attack on Friday, accusing Britain of paying Zimbabweans to turn against his government.

""Down with the British. Down with thieves who want to steal our country," Mugabe told 15,000 cheering supporters who gathered in a stadium on the outskirts of Harare to mark independence day.

"Today they have perfected their tactics to a more subtle form by using money literally to buy some people to turn against their government. We are being bought like livestock," Mugabe said in his first major speech since the elections.

The carnival atmosphere in the stadium contrasted with the poverty outside, where the collapse of Zimbabwe's economy and inflation of about 165,000 percent have led to chronic shortages of water, food and fuel, and 80 percent unemployment.

Critics say Mugabe has wrecked a once-prosperous country.

The MDC has accused Mugabe of unleashing loyal militias to help him rig victory in the runoff against Tsvangirai and allowing veterans of the independence war to invade some farms, echoing a wave of land invasions that began in 2000.

The often-violent land grabs were part of a government policy to seize thousands of white-owned farms and redistribute the land to poor blacks. Zimbabwe's agricultural production has collapsed in the past eight years.

The British embassy in Harare issued a statement on Friday saying it was increasingly concerned "at reports of beatings and violence being unleashed against electoral officials and opposition supporters".

(Additional reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe and Cris Chinaka; Writing by Paul Simao; Editing by Richard Balmforth)